Planning for perfect potatoes

We are now 4th on the waiting list for a plot at our local allotment site. I have always regretted giving up my allotment when I had one, I had given it up due to a split interest between my social life and work/educational life, and deeming that I didn't have enough time I gave it up, a big mistake indeed.

We are both keen to get a plot, but in the meanwhile we are having to re-evaluate our growing methods and most importantly, what we grow. Our growing space is very small to say the least. Last year we grew most of our vegetables in pots, but this year we are really keen to get things in the ground that we do have.

Potatoes were one of the things that I had considered not growing this year. Last year we had some poor luck with growing them in old compost sacks, which we had been assured was a great way of growing them. I am still enviable of people who get results when using this method, it obviously just didn't work for us. The reason that I am not giving up on potatoes is the fond memories I have of harvesting sacks full of large, delicious spuds on the allotment. Hopefully, come the summer our homegrown potatoes will be the staple of many delicious meals for us.

We really need potatoes to work for us, because they are going to take up a large portion of our growing space. About 1/3 to be precise. Therefore, it's key that our preperations start now.

There are always 4 steps when growing potatoes and we are now at the second step.

We have chosen which potatoes we are going to grow (step 1). There is always such a wide variety of seed potatoes around at this time of year. The garden centres are full of them! We decided that this year we are going to grow a maincrop variety only. (Although I have been tempted to give some earlies another go in the sack method.) After careful consideration, we plumped for the good, old, faithful Maris Piper. Such a versatile and traditional potato, it can be used for most things such as chipping, roasting, boiling and their good size means they are also great for jackets!

Step 2, is a rather funny step. It's time to get chit-chit-chit-chit-chitting. 'Chitting' is basically where you allow your seed potatoes to develop their 'eyes' ready for planting out in mid-March. It takes about 20-40 days for the eyes on the potatoes to develop. It is a very funny stage in the potato growing cycle, just seeing the kitchen table full of egg boxes holding rather funny looking eggs (potatoes) is quite novel!

Step number 3 is the planting. This will take place some time towards the middle/end of next month. It will take about 4 months for the potatoes to grow and reach a good size. We should be harvesting (Step 4) these beauties from mid July onwards until October.

Having written this blog post, I am now even more tempted to buy a few early seed potatoes and try the sack method again. I might invest in some proper potato growing bags though, rather than use old compost sacks.

Which variety/ies have you gone for this year? I've always loved the idea of a really good mix, but at the moment we do not have the space to do so.

I can't wait until I post about the results of these in several months time. I am hoping they give better results than last year, where in one of the bags full we only got 1 good sized potato. Never mind and fingers crossed!!

Martin

Time to start getting excited

Very, very, very cold right now. I was expecting a small sprinkling of snow last night but was informed by the wonderful BBC weather people that it would have melted by the morning due to a slosh of rain. However come 3pm yesterday afternoon the snow began to fall (pictured above), and when I went to bed at gone midnight this morning it still hadn't stopped. Anyhow, it was going to rain wasn't it?   Nope!

It looks like it snowed through the night, we have had a couple of inches which is a couple of inches more than I first imagined we would get. It was melting quite quickly though, but it was funny walking up to see the chickens this morning. Lesley and Geraldine have seen snow several times before, but the poor bantam girls looked very startled. Being born only last summer they have not seen a downpour of the white stuff before.

If I had have known we were going to get so much snow it might have been an idea to move them to a hard standing part of the garden rather than leave them on the grass. The front section of the eglu run looked like a big pooey mess as the snow starts to thaw. I just had to take a picture.

They were glad to see me and were given a nice handful of oats in addition to their normal layers pellets. It wasn't much fun breaking the ice in the water bowl either!

Hopefully this snow is an abrupt end to the winter. I see that we are due cold temperatures for a couple of weeks but hopefully after that we can start getting serious in the garden again. We visited a local garden centre on Friday, one of those which are more about 'status' and 'trendynous' with some of the older generations than the actual gardening stuff they sell, it is also one of the more pricey ones too. Anyhow we did come away with some bargains and also our seed potatoes. We are re-evaluating the way we grow potatoes this year. We had moderate luck with the grow in a sack method last year (small sized potatoes, small yield), so this year we are going back to traditional ways and putting them in the ground. They are currently in egg boxes as we await the 'chitting' process to begin!

I also found other items rather irresistible such as packets of seeds and some magazines. I have a massive problem. Every time I see a magazine involving vegetable growing, chicken keeping, smallholding etc. I just have to buy it.

It's almost time to sow the first seeds of the year so I hope you'll come back to read about what I'm doing over the next few days and weeks.

I can't wait to read your blog and see what you are doing too!!

Martin

Christmas - Where did that one go?

There's nothing better in my opinion than taking a day off in January and spending it digging in the garden in a polo shirt and pair of old jeans. So that is exactly what I have been doing today. I've been digging our little plot in our garden and adding 1 and a half years of rotted compost in the process. The area looks lovely now, it's just awaiting this years crops. I've covered the area with planks of wood that have come from an old broken bed frame so that weeds can't grow in this lovely moist area of land. Taking a look back, it looks like a mess with all that wood over it, but I know that come July this area of my garden is going to look a lot better than last year, well I certainly hope so!

The last post I made was just before Christmas when I was showcasing our homemade cross stitch cards. I said I was going to make a post with all of our other christmas activities in, but whilst digging I just remembered that I hadn't actually done that.

I posted about making our Christmas cakes in October, and I am pleased to say that they were very well received by the lucky people who found them under there tree last month. We had a fantastic day in mid-december icing the cakes and decorating them, we also had mincepies on the go so the whole house smelt superb.

Here's a small selection of the festive eatings we had this year...

Everything tasted great, which was a surprise on Christmas day when we tucked in to the cakes! It's hard to make something in advance and not know if it tastes ok until people have tried it on the day. It could have tasted awful, and we would still have handed them out unknowingly.

We also visited some nice places over Christmas including London, where the coach crashed into a lamp post on the way, and to Birmingham for the German Christmas market.

It's always nice walking down to uni when the market is on. It's full of nice smells and sounds all day long..

It was nice to see that the Bullring Bull was keeping warm on those cold nights...

Onwards to London, despite the crash, we had great fun doing a bit of Christmas shopping and visiting the zoo. We loved the Disney Store on Oxford Street and its festive theming...

Anyway, Christmas soon flew over and now it is 2012. A very happy new year to you all too, before I forget! It's going to be an exciting year this year, we are both hoping to go in to full time employment and we are going to have lots of fun outside of work along the way. I just can't wait to get back to the veg patch in the next couple of months and start doing the best bit about gardening, planting out the seedlings,plant and flowers ready for this years harvest.

This year we are going to be growing things that we enjoy eating to make sure we are making the most of our small plot. Last year we grew leeks, beetroot and turnips. Things I don't normally eat frequently enough, and in the case of Amy, things she doesn't like eating. We are going to grow those vegetables and fruits which make nice meals in themselves. Courgettes (and lots and lots of them), tomatoes, potatoes, runner beans and peppers. We'll be growing more than just that of course, but those are the things we really enjoy growing and eating, which funnily enough were the things which grew best las year.

What will you grow this year?

Martin

Santa Claus is coming....

Well, I'm definately not a professional and I'm nowhere near completing a masterpiece comprising of an idealic riverside cottage with gardens to boot. But I do like cross stitching and I can do a few basic designs.

I absolutely love receiving homemade cards, and this year Amy and I have decided we will distribute them amongst those we know who will appreciate the time and effort we have put in to creating them.

The following designs are just a sample of what we have produced. I'm not going to post a photo of all of the designs because I know some of the receipients are going to read this very blog post...

We've filled a box full of threads and designs so that is something to keep us busy in the new year when it's raining hard and we can't get in to the garden as much as we would like to.

I've got a busy day tomorrow. I have to go to university to submit my Econometrics coursework, and then I am going to do a spot of Christmas shopping so that I can finally tick Amy completly off the list. I need to get a shift on with my own wrapping too so I must buy some wrapping paper. However, saying that our bedroom has resembled Santa's workshop recently. I've been writing the cards and the labels and Amy has been wrapping the presents and tying the ribbon. It's been so much fun, I absolutely love this time of year. So after the submitting and the shopping, I then move on to socialising when I meet some work colleagues for a get together as a substitute for the lack of our Christmas party.

I've also got some things to do in the kitchen as well. I've got onions to pickle and cakes to bake.

'tis the season to be jolly...

Martin

Those winter nights..

Have you ever been in a rush in the morning only to go outside and feel your heart sink and your brain spin out of control at what is in front of you? These winter nights are really catching up with us now, and I've already had to reach for the ice scraper in the last couple of weeks.

Christmas is nearly upon us, and tomorrow is the first Sunday in advent.

Although, we haven't been posting much recently due to commitments such as University coursework, we are still living 'our good life' and it is definately good enough for us, but we are sorry we haven't been able to share it with you.

We are going to try and tell you about some of our festive happenings over the next few weeks. We are going to be visiting some of the most beautiful and fascinating Churches in Warwickshire as we look forward to our festive celebrations, and we will also be visiting many other fascinating places too. We'll try and give you a bit of an insight in to the Frankfurt market in Birmingham city centre, and we'll let you know about our trip to London on the 19th.

If that's not enough, I am looking forward to making cranberry sauce for the first time, so that will definately give me something to get excited about. I also want to show you the delicious home made Christmas cakes that we will be distributing to our nearest and dearest in a couple of weeks from now. The cakes have been maturing for 2 months now, and on the 20th we intend to ice them ready for handing out. We've been taking some advice from the lovely Nigella and there are a few different ways we are going to try and decorate them.

We've also been very crafty this year. We've abandoned the Tesco Christmas Card multipacks in favour of a needle and thread and we'll reveal the results very soon..

Before I sign off for now, I just want to show you a picture of one of these winter nights. It was taken at Ragley Hall in Arrow, Warwickshire....

We visited the Ragley sailing club at Ragley lake for it's last ever meeting. A club that Amy's grandpa has been a member of for more than half a century. It's a shame to see that they are being turned away by the estate, in favour of cash generating ventures.

Thanks for reading,

Martin